Jehan Sadat
| Jehan Sadat جيهان السادات Jihān es-Sadāt |
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Jehan Sadat speaks at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California, on April 11, 2006
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| First Lady of Egypt | |
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In role October 15, 1970 – October 6, 1981 |
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| President | Anwar Sadat |
| Preceded by | Tahia Kazem |
| Succeeded by | Suzanne Mubarak |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Jehan Safwat Raouf (Egyptian Arabic: جيهان صفوت رؤوف) 29 August 1933 Cairo, Egypt |
| Spouse(s) | Anwar Sadat |
| Children | Lubna Anwar Sadat Noha Anwar Sadat Gamal Anwar El Sadat Jehan Anwar Sadat |
| Alma mater | Cairo University |
| Religion | Islam |
Jehan Sadat (Egyptian Arabic: جيهان السادات Jihān es-Sadāt; born 29 August 1933), a human rights activist, is the widow of Anwar Sadat, and was First Lady of Egypt from 1970 until Sadat's assassination in 1981.
Jehan Sadat, also spelled Jihan, was born Jehan Safwat Raouf (Arabic: جيهان صفوت رؤوف Jīhān Ṣafwat Raʼūf) in Cairo, Egypt as the first girl and third child of an upper-middle-class family of an Egyptian surgeon father (Safwat Raouf), and English music teacher mother (Gladys Cotterill), her mother was the daughter of Charles Henry Cotterill, a Sheffield City police superintendent. She was raised as a Muslim according to her father's wishes, but also attended a secondary Christian school for girls in Cairo.
As a teenage schoolgirl she was intrigued with Anwar Sadat as a local hero through following reports in the media about his heroic stories and his courage, loyalty, and determination in resisting the British occupation of Egypt. She heard many stories about him from her cousin, whose husband was his colleague in resistance and later in prison.
It was at her fifteenth birthday party that she first met her future husband Anwar Sadat, shortly after his release from prison, where he served two and a half years for his political activities. She and Sadat married on May 29, 1949, after hesitation and objections from her parents to the idea of their daughter marrying a jobless revolutionary. He was 31, she was 15 years 9 months old. Sadat was subsequently part of the core members of the Free Officers Movement that led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan.
Over the course of 32 years, Jehan was a supportive wife for her rising political husband who would go on to become President of Egypt. She is mother to their three daughters Noha, Jihan, Lobna and son Gamal. She later used her platform as the first lady of Egypt to touch the lives of millions inside her country, and served as a role model for women everywhere. She helped change the world’s image of Arab women during the 1970s, while undertaking volunteer work, and participating in non-governmental service to the less fortunate.
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